This article in the Globe and Mail (Genetic maps help unravel black market in ivory) underscores the promise of genomics tools for compliance and enforcement of conservation laws. 

Dr. Wasser was asked to help in 2002, when the authorities in
Singapore seized a huge shipment of contraband ivory. Investigators
from a number of countries wanted to know where it had come from, and
he had developed a technique for matching the genetic material found in
tusks to the DNA found in feces of elephants, allowing him to pinpoint
where the tusks came from.

There were 532 tusks in the shipment, plus more than 40,000 hunks of
ivory already cut up to make the ivory seals. Between 3,000 and 6,500
elephants were likely killed to get that much ivory, the scientists
say.

The DNA showed the elephants came from central Zambia, a country
that has not been given permission to sell its ivory stockpiles
internationally. The government wanted to sell ivory taken from animals
killed prior to 1989, and said that only 135 elephants had been
illegally killed over the past 10 years.

Through genetic maps and the identification of biomarkers for specific populations, authorities will increasingly be able to determine the provenance of a given piece of ivory, can of abalone, or sockeye fillet.  A quick and reliable test for biomarkers of threatened species will tighten the screws on the middlemen who trade with dodgy sources, and that is a good thing. 

The original PNAS article is here.